This ain't a diary, this is a - mirror?

Chapter 15: Unexpected Visitor and A Colourful Teacher... Literally

The door swung open, revealing a surprised Elena. "Well... I didn't expect the door to open that easily - oh, hey Sam, hey Zephyr."

Samantha waved and gestured at her bag of crisps. "Want some?" She asked. Elena shrugged and picked her way across the floor over to Samantha's bed. "So, what brings you here?" She asked Zephyr, taking a pawful of crisps and selecting one from her paw.

"Nothing. Just wanted to visit." Zephyr replied, popping a cookie into his mouth. "So, how are my sisters?" He asked, quickly changing the subject. "Did you get along with them?"

"Yeah, they're pretty cool." Elena said. "Interesting, so to speak... oh, and about how you discovered your powers..."

Zephyr chuckled. "So, they told you about that?" He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine, if you're worried."

Elena huffed. "Not at all."

Zephyr laughed at her attitude. "Well, if you say so. Anyways, what's your next lesson? Maybe we're in the same class."

"Art. I'm in the same class as Elena, so... oh, and the teacher's... Ms Lore. Uh, how do you pronounce this? The... e with the slash?" Samantha squinted at her timetable.

"Loré. With an accent." Zephyr replied. "I'm in the same class too! And I think Luna's with us, too."

"What about Sharon?" Elena asked.

"Eh, probably a different teacher." Zephyr answered. "So, how were your teachers for the first two lessons?"

"We had Mr Carter for English, and I'm in a different class to Sam for Science." Elena replied. "Mr Carter's like that eternally sick teacher... my Science teacher... er, I forgot her name."

"I had Mr Strey for Science. He seems pretty chill... oh, and he's a deer." Samantha replied. "Have you seen any animals aside from dogs here at school? They seem pretty... uncommon."

"Actually, the school prides itself on having a diverse community. Maybe you just haven't met them yet," Elena suggested.

Zephyr chuckled. "Speaking of which, I had a cat in my Science class - we were doing Biology, something with pondweed and photosynthesis, and someone accidentally dropped the pondweed on the cat. They screeched for like, a whole minute, and nearly attacked said student."

The other two dogs burst into laughter. "I know I shouldn't be laughing, but that's pretty funny." Samantha finally said, after taking a deep breath. "Do cats really hate water that much?"

"I haven't met many cats myself, so I don't know." Zephyr replied, looking up at the clock. "Oh, look, it's almost time for class. We'd better get going, huh?" He pulled himself to his paws and dusted himself off. "Don't worry, I don't think I got any crumbs on the floor," he added, peering down at his paws. "Do you want me to wait for you guys?"

"Sure, if you don't mind," Elena said casually, standing up. Samantha stood up as well and tossed her empty bag into the trash. "Don't forgot your art book... and your maths book," Elena added, picking up the two books on her desk.

"Thanks for the reminder." Samantha took her English books, Science folder and the several crumpled papers out of her bag and tossed them onto her bed, then shoved her art and maths books into her bag.

"Alright, let's go," Zephyr said, after seeing that they were ready. "To class!"

---

"Hello, class. My name is Ms Loré and this will be your first art lesson of the academic year." A dog with yellow and silver hair over one side of her snout and a long, elegant red and gold dress paced in front of the class. Her fur was charcoal black, with stripes of rainbow fur running all the way from her snout down her back and ending at her tail. Her magenta eyes scanned the class critically and she stopped in front of the whiteboard.

"Our first topic will be portraits. The final project of the unit will be a portrait of yourself, done with paint. I expect work of the best of your ability every lesson, not just for the end project." The rainbow stripes on her fur rippled into a pastel green, then back to rainbow.

"The first mini project - you will be drafting portraits of yourself with pencil. However, we will start with the basics. Face proportion." She stopped in front of her laptop and pressed a few keys.

The projector flickered on. Ms Loré pressed another key and gestured to a student at the front of the room. "Please turn off the lights."

"O-oh... um, okay." He mumbled, standing up and quickly hurrying over to switch off the lights. "Er, which one is it...?"

The lights slowly flickered off. Ms Loré nodded and reached for a whiteboard marker. "Now, let's start from the top of the head. Ears. I assume you all have them... and every one varies by colour. However, there are a few common ear shapes that are shared among most dogs."

She quickly sketched out a few ears, ranging from pointed to floppy. "I would like all of you to write the title, Ears, and the date, and try to draw some of the ears shown. Here are some real life photos to help you." She pressed a button on her laptop and several images of dogs' ears showed up. "Please get started."

Samantha flipped open her book with a sigh and reached for a pencil and eraser. She looked to her right, where Elena was eagerly sketching out a pointed ear, then to her left, where Luna was doodling something on the cover of her art book.

She squinted at the whiteboard and drew a wobbly triangle. She frowned and added another triangle in the middle to form the inside of the ear.

Ms Loré was padding between the desks and stopping every once in a while to watch a student draw. "The inner ear needs to be larger," she instructed one student. "Draw a basic outline before going on to shading."

Samantha looked down at her 'drawing' then back to Luna, who was still drawing on the front of her book. She leaned over and poked Luna with a paw, then nodded towards Ms Loré, who was slowly but steadily making her way over to their row.

Luna shrugged, mouthed, "Whatever," but flipped open her book to the first page. She rolled her eyes, squinted at the whiteboard, and began to draw.

Samantha could feel Ms Loré's eyes scanning over her row. She gulped and went back to refining her sketch, while watching Ms Loré wandering in between the desks through the corner of her eye.

She shivered slightly, tried not to make eye contact with Ms Loré and continued to work.